Nimitz-Class Carrier
The Nimitz-Class Carrier is the next starship to be designed by the Centauri. It's got the same flowing organic look to it, inspired by the tales of watery creatures that once existed on their home planet. It's much larger then their previous design, the Cutter-Class Corvette. It can hold dozens if not hundreds of ships in it's huge flight deck space. Armaments She's a heavily armed anti fighter capital ship. Her forward nose bulb section is covered in 15 Quad laser turrets. the ventral side of the nose has one, 12 inch, double barrel flack gun. the dorsal side of the nose has two, 12 inch, double barrel flak guns. Her smooth dorsal surface is dotted with 28 quad laser turrets and 6, 8 inch double barrel flack guns. Her ventral surface also has 28 quad laser turrets but only has 4, 8 inch double barrel flack guns. Her ventral surface also has two concussion missile launchers mounted in turrets, with the tube and magazine external. The magazine for each launcher carries 20 warheads. Her aft has 15, 8 inch double barrel flack guns and 15 quad laser turrets. Her port and starboard sides are lined with simple radar guided point defense laser cannons which are light in power but fast cycling. 20 on each side. The placement of her guns is such that no fighter can approach without being within the firing arc of at least 2 turrets. The carrier is equipped with 6 tractor beams. 4 on her ventral surface and one on each side, amidships. Engines/Hyperdrive The Nimitz Class has three heavy ion engines which give the carrier moderate sublight speeds. Her engines draw power from two cold fusion reactors. which also supply power to the secondary systems within the ship. A third and fourth cold fusion reactor powers the weapon and shield systems. She uses a class 3 Hyperdrive with a Class 12 backup. She maneuvers using a series of new gravitic manipulation devices. Jor Halcyon donated all the information on Yuuzhan Vong bio technology to the Centauri who were very interested because they already used semi organic matter in the construction of their Cutter Corvettes. A year into development and they managed to produce a technological analog. These devices aren't as powerful, or effective as they can only produce ebbs of gravity which can influence the ships coarse. the ship has 8 of these devices, 4 on each side. Unlike most ships her size, the Nimitz class is capable of entering atmosphere. Her belly is lined with a powerful ring of Repulsorlift arrays both amidships and under her nose. These repulsorlift arrays support the ship during atmospheric operations so long as the vessel doesn't perform any quick or advanced maneuvers. While it can enter and exit a planets atmoshere, it can not land. Armor/Shields Like all Centauri ships, she's covered in a semi-organic skin which is about 4 inches thick at the maximum. It responds to incoming energy weapon attacks and adapts to it. The skin learns from past impacts and modifies itself to better protect against attacks of those types and absorbs energy from the impacts to help it repair itself over the long term. Her actual hull is made from 2 meters of titanium for an inner hull. Her outer hull is 9 inchs of Durosteel. Between the two hulls is a layer of shock absorbing foam that dissipates kinetic impacts to help prevent damage to the inner hull. She has three Mon Calamari Shield Generators providing protection for her hull. Two of the generators maintain shields up on all arcs. These shield generatiors are more focused on protecting the ship from large scale energy weapon attacks like capitol ship turbolasers rather than short range attacks from fighters or corvettes. It's third shield generator is used as additional protection to any area of the ship that might need added protection durring battle, like it's hanger bay or engines. This third generator is more well rounded than the first two, so it can provide better missile and mass driver protection. Compliment The Nimitz class has hanger space and facilities to hold, fuel and run maintenance on 120 fighters permanently. She has space to hold many more fighters but she doesn't have the flight crews, fuel, or facilities to maintain them for long term. This extra space is normally reserved for extra storage but can also be used to transport extra troops, fighters and shuttles for quick opperations. She has additional space to provide room for 10 shuttles permanantly. Typically, one shuttle is assigned to each fighter squadron to act in a SAR coppacity as well as a long range scout. The port side of the hanger is reserved parking for 4 CR25 troop carriers and the space required to load them. The Nimiz also has housing and facilities for up to 2,000 troopers for long term operations. Additional housing can be errected on the flight deck for up to 500 more troopers if required. Storage for large ground vehicles like AT-AT's or AT-TE's is tricky because of a lack of permanant transportation for them. The Nimitz's huge storage space can hold up to 6 AT-AT's but getting them on and off the ship can be a long and complicated process since the ship wasn't designed to permanantly hold the short range transportation used to carry them. To provide something of a solution to this problem, the Centauri added in a last minute design idea. Inspired by the new Olympian-Class Escorte, they built into the ship a tractor beam lift. In the center of the repulsorlift array ring in the belly of the ship is a large hatch which irises open. The ventral tractor beams and a dedicated internal tractor beam can lock onto objects on the surface of a planet and haul them up through the hatch, directly onto the hanger deck. This goes both ways, allowing large battlefield equipment and vehicles to be lowered down to a planets surface. It's a slow but a safe and easy way to drop large vehicles to a planet after the initial invasion and securing of a landing zone. Crew The Nimitz has a total crew of 5,200 permanent party. It breaks down to 3,400 crewmen, 200 chiefs, 150 officers, and 250 pilots. 1,200 flight crewmen service the carriers fighters and shuttles. She has additional birthing and facilities for 2,000 ground troops. Bridge The Bridge to the Nimitz class is of Centauri design. It's a circular room, 70 feet in diameter. Around the perimeter of the room is a series of holoprojectors which gives the bridge crew a real time view of the space around the ship, 360 degrees. The Captain, his helmsmen and sensor officer have their places on a raised platform in the center of the bridge, giving the captain an overlooking view on the rest of the bridge crew and their consoles. The bridge itself is at the center of the forward nose to keep it protected. It receives it's holographic data from the ships sensors and holorecorders stationed around the ship.